Austin is 6 today!

Wow, can't believe I actually have a 6 year old! Not that it really feels like it but hey, whatever right? At 1:30 Ben and I are going to Austin's school to surprise him with chocolate chip muffins and Ben will play him "Happy Birthday" on his guitar. If you know anything about RTS or Austin you'll know just how excited Austin will be! Anyway, to celebrate Austin's birthday I thought I'd give a brief account of his birth story:

After suffering 2 miscarriages (one at 12 weeks, one at 6 weeks), Austin was conceived. I had a very easy pregnancy and gained the right amount of weight for my body type. At the time we were living in Sierra Vista, AZ since my husband was stationed at Fort Huachuca. It being their first grandchild, my parents flew from NY to AZ to be there for the birth. My mom planned on staying a month (THANK YOU!!) and my dad stayed for 2 weeks. After my dad left, my sis arrived for 2 weeks! Lots of help! Well while my mom and I were watching Gilmore Girls on TV, I went into labor. 7:45pm on May 14th...finally! Austin was due May 13th.

Well with Austin being my first full pregnancy, I did what the books said and I went to bed to get some rest before the hard contractions came. Yeah right. I was too nervous and excited! 11pm my dr. gave me the ok to head to the hospital and Austin was born at 3:59am (they couldn't just say 4am?!?!) on May 15th after 8 hours of labor and with only 45 minutes of pushing. Oh yeah, mustn't forget the blessed epidural I got once I got to 7cm! LOL He weighed in at 6lbs. 6oz. and 19 1/4 inches long. No problems (RTS related) at birth or afterward. With what we now know we thank the Lord we didn't run into problems. Austin did have trouble nursing so I fed him with an eye dropper while I was in the hospital with him. If you'd like to read a bit more you can see Austin's website and all the other RTS cuties at http://www.rubinstein-taybi.org/our/Austin

Enjoying the warmer weather

I love this picture my sis took of her daughter A and Andrew playing outside. A is 2 1/2 yrs old. The two of them LOVE to play together!

Elmo aka Clifford the Big Red Dog

Well, here's the picture of "Elmo" and Andrew that I promised. Goofy picture of me but I just had to laugh. Who would've thought Clifford would appear to Andrew as Elmo? What a nut!

Austin's birthday is around the corner!

As you can tell from my ticker, Austin's birthday is around the corner! Thursday actually! Ben and I have chosen to buy him a fish tank and fish for his birthday. Austin ADORES fish. He usually cries when we pry him away from fish tanks at the zoo, PetCo, etc.

We've slowly started setting up his tank. It's filled with water and today we purchased a few hoses and filters. The filter is running so even though the tank is empty, Austin just stands at stares at it anyway. He loves watching the bubbles that the water makes. Don't get me wrong, he has gotten frustrated with us! He'll take our hands and drag us to the tank and start whinning like "come on people! Where are my fish?!?". Every day we tell him he gets to pick out his fish on his birthday but of course, he forgets. =)

Book Fest

This morning my sister and I met a friend at our town's PBS Book Fest. The local ice arena had booths with different crafts to make, giveaways, free books, etc. I thought Andrew would just love to go to this because his favorite show is "SuperWhy" on PBS. The caracters from Clifford, Curious George, and SuperWhy came out to do pictures with the kids so what great fun for Andrew to see a character he knew! As the parents all filed together to get pictures (I'll post it later, I didn't bring my camera but my sis did!), Andrew sees Clifford (the big red dog). Well seeing all that red reminded him of his OTHER favorite show...Elmo. He would not quite yelling "Elmo"! He was SOOOO excited! He ran up to "elmo" (Clifford) put his arms up in the air and gave Clifford a big hug around his leg. Go figure.

more pictures

Ok, well I took such good pics, I decided to show a few more! Couldn't resist!

This is a pic of my and my sister-in-law at a scenic overlook

Our Time in Hawaii

Wow, where do I begin?!?! Ben and I had a wonderful time in Hawaii. We stayed on the island of Kauai on Po'ipu Beach. It was incredibly relaxing. It was hard to shift from "mom" mode! Every time someone would yell up the stairs or slam a door I was sooo on the verge of saying "be quiet!". LOL The days seemed to last forever (which is great when you're in "paradise"). We finally figured it's because it usually takes us a half hour to get out the door and kids buckled in their cars seats, etc.

When we arrived to our condo we were greeted by the island welcomers...chickens and roosters! Who would have thought?!? The story is back in '92 a hurricane smashed all the cages and they've been wild ever since. They're everywhere and don't mind people one bit!



Our first day we spent most of the day on the beach (where I fried, even with sunscreen)!



One day while we were on the beach, a Monk seal decided to come visit just feet from us. The lifeguard made everyone back up and the seal camped out on the beach for 2 hours!





Another fun outing we did was kayaking! I loved it! We kayaked to a trail, hiked 2 miles to a waterfall, and then kayaked to a rope swing (I'm not that brave, my husband did it though).



We also rented a Harley for the day and went to the Botanical Gardens which was gorgeous! We were told by our guide that the gardens were used for several shots in the movie "Jurassic Park"!





All in all, I took 130 pictures! Let me know if you'd like to see more!